Laumeier Sculpture Park has named Lauren Ross as its new executive director. Ross, who will assume the role in August, comes from an extensive art background, including serving as the curator/director of arts programs at New York City High Line and most recently as curator of Virginia Commonwealth University's Institute for Contemporary Art. We recently sat down with her to discuss her vision for the park, its 40-year history, and what she's looking forward to most in her new role.

What are your goals as the new executive director for Laumeier Sculpture Park? I would say to help write the next chapter of Laumeier’s history, in which the park becomes increasingly dynamic and welcoming for all visitors and is living up to its potential while also is experimenting, growing, and expanding. Another goal is that I would like to raise the profile of Laumeier nationally and internationally. It’s a gem that more people should know about.

What led to your decision to take the role? I’ve worked at different types of organizations, small and large, some that have art collections and some that don’t, some that were totally in brand-new startup mode and others with long established history. Each of those types of institutions brings its own set of strengths and challenges. Looking at Laumeier, it just strikes me that it has a mix of desirable qualities. It’s old enough to be loved and respected by the community with its 40-plus–year history.

It’s not too steeped in tradition to keep it from being nimble and responsive and making a shift maybe in a new direction. It is large enough to have resources to do things, yet small enough to be flexible. Sculpture parks are really unique places that are positioned to explore a lot of issues simultaneously. I love the park’s mission statement: “Engaging the community through art and nature.” It just feels like a place that is really well positioned to do that.

How do you hope to continue that mission? One of the best ways to engage the community through art and nature is to present art that takes a multidisciplinary approach and looks at areas of overlap in between those things. Most contemporary artists don’t want to function in a vacuum, and many are turning to other fields—not just for ideas and practicing, but also for collaborations. Art can very easily overlap with nature, ecology, botany, or health and wellness. Thinking about Laumeier, there is a lot of potential to explore fields like architecture and landscape architecture and design. The model is an interesting public-private partnership, and it’s a way to think about public space and how and where communal experiences can take place.

One existing program of the park that I really like is called In Residence, which brings a person from another field to do a series of educational programs. Currently, that person is a poet, but in the past, the participants have included nutritionists, archeologists, and historians. That is exactly the type of interdisciplinary exchange that I am talking about. I think that we can expand upon and deepen that type of engagement.

What is your favorite sculpture in the park? It might shift a little bit as I learn more about the artists, those works, and how they came to the park. With that being said, I will say the first time I visited the park there were two pieces that made very strong first impressions on me. One was Beverly Pepper’s "Cromlech Glen," which is this stunningly interactive earthwork. There is a staircase embedded in the land and you can climb up and there is a space where you can sit and be surrounded by the piece. The other one that really struck me was Jackie Ferrara’s "Laumeier Project," which was the park’s first site-specific piece.

What are you most excited for in your new role? I am really excited to be coming into this organization at a moment of transition. There has been a tremendous amount of work over the last two years, initiated by the interim director, bringing Laumeier to a place of strong financial stability. She was building on all of the work on the director who preceded her, who I think did incredible things with the park in terms of this artistic vision and collection. I am excited to come in and build on those strong foundations that have been established.

I would say one of the things I am most excited about is getting to know the people of St. Louis and hearing from them what Laumeier means to them and how they envision the organization improving and engaging them even more. I get the feeling the park is a beloved place, and we want to build it to be an invaluable resource for everyone in the region.